Bank PO :: PO English Language Test 127

Test 127 Questions and Answers

1 .

Direction : Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions given below it. Certain words/phrases are printed in bold to help you locate them while answering some of the questions.
Keynes once remarked how inane huinans were to dig gold from one corner of the earth and bury it in a vault in another corner. For millennia, housewives, speculators and governments have hungered for gold, regarding it as a unique commodity that would retain its value in all circumstances, making it the safest of safe investments. Now the glitter is wearing off. The world price of gold has just slumped below $300 per ounce. down from $500 in the mid-1980s. Those who bought gold as a safe investment are looking pretty silly. Gold is obsolete as an investment. When banking and financial instruments were underdeveloped, when war and hyperinflation were common, gold represented an insurance policy in a disaster. Insurance policies do not represent good investment, especially in modern times when life is less uncertain. The US dollar was linked to gold ($35 to the ounce) tili 1970, when President Nixon set it free. It soared after years of repression, convincing everybody that it was a tlne investment. Yet the US move had actually sealed its long-term doom. The IMF began selling its gold reserves in the mid-1970s, to finance a Special Development Fund. Several other central banks gradually sold some gold. Speculators still produced occasional bull runs, yet the long-term decline asserted itself. As this became increasingly evident, fewer and fewer peoples and governments built up gold hoards. and so the downward drift was accentuated. The Swiss government's decision to dispose of most of its gold reserves has sparked the tatest fall in price. and it will not be the last.We are delighted. The Indian appetite for gold remains enormous. Smuggling plus legal Imports amount to perhaps $4 billion per year, a huge diversion of precious savings of the nation. This will diminish only when it becomes clear that gold is a lousy investment. The downward drift of world gold prices has been cloaked in india by rupee depreciation. Yet, at some point, even illiterate villagers will realise that a post office savings account yields considerably more than an investment in gold. At that point, Indians will finally recognise that gold may have decorative value but no investment value. Then alone will gold fever be cured.

Direction (Q. 1 - 3) : Choose the word which is most ncarly the SAME is meaning as the word given in bold as used in the passage.

If you dispose oj somelhmg that you no longer want or need. you gct rid of it. Now, how do you get rid of property which is not of much use to you? You seil it. Also see dispose on p. 135 and p. 285, English Is Easy (EE)

Direction : Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions given below it. Certain words/phrases are printed in bold to help you locate them while answering some of the questions.
Keynes once remarked how inane huinans were to dig gold from one corner of the earth and bury it in a vault in another corner. For millennia, housewives, speculators and governments have hungered for gold, regarding it as a unique commodity that would retain its value in all circumstances, making it the safest of safe investments. Now the glitter is wearing off. The world price of gold has just slumped below $300 per ounce. down from $500 in the mid-1980s. Those who bought gold as a safe investment are looking pretty silly. Gold is obsolete as an investment. When banking and financial instruments were underdeveloped, when war and hyperinflation were common, gold represented an insurance policy in a disaster. Insurance policies do not represent good investment, especially in modern times when life is less uncertain. The US dollar was linked to gold ($35 to the ounce) tili 1970, when President Nixon set it free. It soared after years of repression, convincing everybody that it was a tlne investment. Yet the US move had actually sealed its long-term doom. The IMF began selling its gold reserves in the mid-1970s, to finance a Special Development Fund. Several other central banks gradually sold some gold. Speculators still produced occasional bull runs, yet the long-term decline asserted itself. As this became increasingly evident, fewer and fewer peoples and governments built up gold hoards. and so the downward drift was accentuated. The Swiss government's decision to dispose of most of its gold reserves has sparked the tatest fall in price. and it will not be the last.We are delighted. The Indian appetite for gold remains enormous. Smuggling plus legal Imports amount to perhaps $4 billion per year, a huge diversion of precious savings of the nation. This will diminish only when it becomes clear that gold is a lousy investment. The downward drift of world gold prices has been cloaked in india by rupee depreciation. Yet, at some point, even illiterate villagers will realise that a post office savings account yields considerably more than an investment in gold. At that point, Indians will finally recognise that gold may have decorative value but no investment value. Then alone will gold fever be cured.

Direction : Choose the word which is most ncarly the SAME is meaning as the word given in bold as used in the passage.

Direction (Q. 4 - 5) : Choose the word which is most OPPOSITE in meaning of the word given in bold as used in the passage.

Direction (Q. 6 - 10) : In each sentence below a word/ group of words has been given in bold. Below each, four choices (1), (2), (3) and (4) are given. Pick out the one which can Substitute the bold word/group of words correctly, without changing the meaning of the sentence. If the sentence is correct as it is and no correction is required, give (4) as the answer.

Whiletliepolicy.takenintüll.iscertainly awelcomeeffort. there are still several irritants that need to be sorted out.